1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for making charitable donations. The present invention relates more specifically to methods for facilitating charitable donations which are linked to independent financial transactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although many charitable organizations do an excellent job of helping those in need, these organizations have historically suffered from various funding problems. Some of the reasons for these funding difficulties are related to poorly developed efforts to inform the community about opportunities to contribute to the charity, inadequate strategies to encourage such contributions, inconvenient donation vehicles, unreliable collection methods, and distribution delays.
Some effort has been made in the past to devise creative alternatives to promote charitable giving. These efforts have generally been directed to organizing and expediting the donation process. In general, these methods simply assist the donor in the contribution process or enable the donor to control various aspects of the contribution. These charitable donation methods are not typically integrated with other financial transactions. Some of these past efforts are reflected in issued U.S. Patents which include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,575, issued to Mull entitled Systems and Methods for Charitable Donating describes an electronic donor-directed charitable donation system designed specifically for the Internet, whereby the donor can direct the disposition of the donation. Specific needs are identified by the charitable organization and the donor can give money to be applied for those specific needs. The system also has a listing of participating merchants that provide goods and services needed by the charitable organization which can be purchased by the institution with a system debit card.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,519,573 issued to Shade et al. entitled System and Method for Charitable Giving likewise describes an Internet-based method which enables selective three-party charitable donations. The host operates the web site or other support services and the donor visits the web site and selects a donation amount and a recipient. The host transmits the gift to the recipient along with a unique code which enables the recipient to redeem the gift by visiting the host web site and selecting a charity from a list of available charitable options. The gift is then sent to the selected donee charity by the host.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,041, issued to Canney entitled Method of Charitable Giving/Investing describes a method of systematically tying investing with giving by designing a fee structure within an investment whereby part of the fee is automatically transferred to a donor-advised account within a charitable community foundation. A charitable liaison will usually introduce a donor to this process of giving/investing. In addition, the donor will often have an investment advisor. Both the liaison and advisor will receive a part of the fee associated with the investment. The charitable giving may be associated with an investment such as a mutual fund or with a consumer purchase in a credit/debit card context.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,466,919 issued to Hovakimian entitled Credit/Charge Card System Enabling Purchasers to Contribute to Selected Charities describes a method which enables a credit cardholder to make a donation to a cardholder-selected charity any time he makes a purchase using the credit card. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,682 issued to Burke entitled Funds Distribution System Connected with Point of Sale Transactions describes an automated way for sales establishments to extend point of sale cash transactions to allow consumers to save, change, or transfer discretionary funds into saving or donating accounts managed by a central clearinghouse.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,547, issued to Ziarno entitled Method of Fund-raising with a Keyless Contribution and Gift Commitment Management Device describes a way to simplify and induce contributions by prospective givers. Keyless, electronic contribution devices are dispersed through a crowd of prospective givers for immediate entry of data regarding the giver. U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,998, also issued to Ziarno entitled Fund-raising Terminal and Method for Accepting Monetary Contributions by Use of an Information Bearing Card describes a way to induce and facilitate the solicitation and contribution of a large number of individuals at fund-raising events using card records such as credit and debit cards.
There are also business methods for managing real estate brokerage referrals, computing comparative values of real estate, and securitizing and trading real estate brokerage options. None of these methods which are related to real estate transactions are also connected to charitable donations.
While various attempts have been made in the past to provide methods to organize and expedite charitable giving, none of these methods are designed to integrate the charitable donation process with a real estate transaction. There would be distinct advantages to linking charitable donations to funds generated from the sale of real property. Specifically, the seller could designate the charity to receive the funds, the amount of a donation from such a transaction could be sizable, the donor already anticipates significant financial expenditures relating to such a major transaction, and the donor is likely to prefer a charitable organization be the recipient of such funds rather than a third party real estate company or salesperson. However, the requirements for structuring such a relationship between property owners/sellers and third party real estate companies and charitable organizations are simply not met by any method described in the prior art.
It would therefore be desirable to have a method whereby a property owner could contribute to a charitable organization, market and sell their property cost-effectively, and potentially receive tax benefits from such a transaction. It would further be desirable to have a charity benefit from the established financial practices involved in the sale of real estate, with such a transaction providing an ideal donation vehicle with a highly reliable method of collection. It would also be desirable to have a charitable donation method whereby such donations were encouraged through their connection to one of the most important financial transactions entered into by most individuals: the sale of real property. Additionally, it would be beneficial to link a charitable donation to a real estate transaction because of the familiar nature of such a common transaction which typically involves the exchange of large amounts of money. A method which linked charitable donation to a real estate transaction would encourage the donation of relatively large sums in a manner which is likely to be perceived as both appealing and financially sound.